Page 32 of The Alpha King's Mate

They spiralled together, closer and closer, until Zira’s dark grey blurred into Malakh’s black and I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. Malakh nudged her side, gentle for something so large, and she folded down into the long grass at the centre of a clearing that hadn’t been there a moment before.

I gasped when I saw her eyes.

Blood red.

Both of them.

The trees went still. The colours stopped bleeding. Everything narrowed to that red, and a voice moved through the clearing like it had always been there, waiting for me to arrive.

Child of the Moon Goddess. It is time to fulfil your destiny.

The voice wasn’t suggesting. It was commanding.

You will become the Luna Queen.

My eyes flew open and I shot upright.

Sorin grunted and followed suit, mid-yawn, rubbing at his eyes with the back of one hand.

“Is it time?” he asked, voice rough with sleep.

“Time?”

“Our mating ceremony.”

I exhaled, and patted his cheek.

“Not quite. I just had a strange dream.”

He grunted and took me down. I lay pinned beneath him, wondering how someone so massive could move so fast. It didn’t seem fair.

“Was I in your dream?” he murmured.

Don’t go breaking his heart, oh great Luna Queen, Zira teased.

“You were,” I said, rubbing the dark stubble along his jawline.“Or rather Malakh was.”

His instant frown made me smile.

Even in my sleep, he tried to claim me.

He lowered his head, his hands planted on either side of me.

“We’re just hours away from being bound together,” he murmured, pressing his cock against my belly.“Forever.”

Excitement, anxiety, and something softer washed over me.

It was a done deal. He’d added another clause before we both signed the agreement—his eternal protection for me and our pups, which meant a hefty provision, should anything happen to him.

He groaned in my ear before kissing my neck.

“You smell and taste like my personal nectar,” he said, licking my neck until I giggled.

“That tickles. Go back to sleep.”

He muttered something under his breath as he moved to my side. I settled down, leaning into him, but I was already replaying the dream, trying to remember the words. Fragments reminded me of what my mother had said about a soothsayer, but I’d long given up on the Moon Goddess’s protection. Quashed the words of false hope from my mind.

Sorin rolled me onto my side and closed in behind me.